KGUN

About KGUN

KGUN-TV, channel 9, is the ABC-affiliated television station licensed to Tucson, Arizona, branded on air as KGUN 9. Owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Sierra Vista-licensed independent station KWBA-TV, it is Tucson's third-oldest commercial television station, with roots going back to 1956. The station's distinctive call letters, among the most memorable in American broadcasting, reflect the Old West heritage of southern Arizona. From studios on East Rosewood Street in east Tucson and a transmitter atop Mount Bigelow, KGUN-TV serves southern Arizona with local news, ABC network programming, and a lineup of popular syndicated shows.

KDWI-TV: the founding years

The station was founded in 1955 by Tucson rancher D. W. Ingram and his Tucson Television Company, and it began broadcasting on June 3, 1956, as KDWI-TV, taking its call letters from its founder's initials. It was Tucson's third commercial television station, joining KOLD-TV and KVOA-TV on the air. In its first months the station operated as an independent, without a network affiliation. On January 24, 1957, Ingram sold the station to H. U. Garrett, a transaction that would give the station its lasting identity.

Garrett changed the call sign to KGUN on March 14, 1957. The change came in part from concern about possible negative connotations in the letters DWI, but it also reflected Garrett himself: he was an avid fan of Westerns and a collector of antique Western guns, and he considered having gun in the station's calls a fitting tribute to Tucson's frontier heritage. Within the year, the station also acquired the ABC affiliation, which moved off KVOA, making channel 9 Tucson's ABC station. The station's original studios were on North 6th Avenue in Tucson.

A succession of owners

Garrett sold the station to Cincinnati meatpacker Henry S. Hilberg on February 1, 1961, and Hilberg renamed it KGUN-TV. Hilberg sold both KGUN and WEHT in Evansville, Indiana, to Gilmore Broadcasting in 1964. Gilmore then sold the station to May Broadcasting in 1968. May sold KGUN and KMTV in Omaha, Nebraska, to Lee Enterprises in December 1986. Lee, in turn, sold all of its television stations to Emmis Communications in 2000. When Emmis liquidated its television holdings in 2005, control of KGUN passed to the Milwaukee-based Journal Broadcast Group, which already owned four radio stations in Tucson. The sale was finalized in December 2005.

Under Journal, the station expanded its local footprint. On March 18, 2008, Journal announced plans to buy CW affiliate KWBA-TV from Cascade Broadcasting Group, and on June 3 of that year the FCC issued a failing station waiver allowing the purchase, citing the loss of Arizona Diamondbacks baseball rights and continued financial losses at KWBA. The acquisition was completed on July 23, 2008, creating a duopoly with KGUN-TV and bringing a new KGUN-produced newscast to the CW station.

The E. W. Scripps Company era

In 2014, the E. W. Scripps Company and Journal Communications announced a merger of their broadcast operations, a transaction completed in April 2015. The deal brought KGUN-TV and KWBA-TV into the Scripps station group, one of the oldest and most respected broadcast ownership groups in the United States, with roots in the Scripps newspaper chain founded in the 19th century. Under Scripps, the station has continued to operate as Tucson's ABC affiliate, backed by the resources of a national station group known for investigative journalism and community service.

KGUN 9 On Your Side: the news operation

KGUN-TV produces local newscasts under the KGUN 9 On Your Side brand across morning, midday, evening, and late-night dayparts. The On Your Side positioning emphasizes consumer advocacy and community-focused reporting. The newsroom covers the full range of southern Arizona concerns: border and immigration issues, water and growth in the desert, the University of Arizona, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, tourism, and the distinctive culture of the Old Pueblo. Its weather team tracks monsoon season, extreme heat, and winter storms in the surrounding mountains.

Historically the station has generally run second or third in Tucson local news ratings, competing with KVOA and KOLD in one of the Southwest's most closely watched local news battles. The station's investigative unit pursues accountability reporting on local government and public safety, and its journalists have earned regional awards for breaking news and enterprise coverage.

Programming

As an ABC affiliate, KGUN-TV carries the full ABC network schedule, from Good Morning America through prime time to late night. The station is also known as the longtime Tucson home of the syndicated game shows Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, which it has aired since their debuts in 1983 and 1984. KGUN picked up both shows in a competitive bid against the other Tucson stations, a move aimed at boosting its early-evening audience ahead of its newscasts. The strategy helped the station place second behind KVOA in the Tucson ratings from the mid-1980s through the late 1990s. The station's digital subchannels carry additional multicast networks.

Technical information

KGUN-TV broadcasts on digital VHF channel 9, displayed to tuners on virtual channel 9, with an effective radiated power of 36.5 kilowatts and a tower height above average terrain of 1,140 meters, or about 3,740 feet. Its transmitter is located atop Mount Bigelow northeast of Tucson, alongside the market's other major stations. The station's facility ID with the FCC is 36918. It operates the low-power translator K27OP-D in Oro Valley to improve reception in the northern Tucson suburbs, and its programming is also carried on KWBA-TV's signal in Sierra Vista. The station completed the analog-to-digital transition in 2009, having broadcast on analog channel 9 since 1956.

Studios and the KWBA duopoly

KGUN-TV and KWBA-TV share studios on East Rosewood Street in east Tucson, at 7280 East Rosewood Street. The combined facility houses the KGUN 9 newsroom, production studios, and master control for both stations. The duopoly allows the stations to share reporting and technical resources while serving distinct audiences: KGUN with ABC programming and local news, KWBA with CW entertainment programming and additional local newscasts produced by the KGUN newsroom.

The call letters and brand identity

The KGUN call letters are among the most distinctive in American television, and the station has long leaned into the identity, styling itself locally as K-GUN. The station dropped the TV suffix from its branding in 1987, becoming simply KGUN, before restoring the full KGUN-TV name in 2009. Its channel 9 logo has gone through several generations, and the station's Western-inflected identity remains a point of local pride, a daily reminder of Tucson's frontier past in the modern media landscape.

Community involvement

KGUN-TV maintains deep ties to southern Arizona through partnerships with schools, charities, and civic organizations. The station supports community fundraising drives, school programs, and public awareness campaigns across the region, and its on-air personalities are familiar faces at local events. Its public affairs programming addresses issues of importance to the area's diverse communities, from the Tohono O'odham Nation to the growing suburbs of Oro Valley, Marana, and Sahuarita.

Digital presence

The station's digital home is kgun9.com, offering breaking news, live streaming newscasts, weather coverage, and investigative reporting, supported by mobile apps and active social media channels. Under Scripps ownership, the station has expanded its streaming and digital-first journalism as part of the company's national investment in local digital news. For southern Arizona viewers, KGUN 9's digital platforms extend the station's On Your Side journalism to phones, tablets, and connected televisions across the region.